bodhicitta

Sanskrit Noun

bodhicitta

mind of enlightenment

बोधिचित्त

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།

菩提心

Basic Meaning

The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution.

Has the Sense of

As this is the desire to achieve and help achieve the state of enlightenment for all sentient beings, it is called the thought or mind of awakening or enlightenment.

Simplified English Usage

Thought of awakening

Term Variations
Key Term	bodhicitta
Topic Variation	bodhicitta
Tibetan	བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  ( jangchubsem)
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	byang chub sems  ( jangchubsem)
Devanagari Sanskrit	बोधिचित्त  ( bodhicitta)
Romanized Sanskrit	bodhicitta  ( bodhicitta)
Chinese	菩提心
Chinese Pinyin	pútí xīn
Buddha-nature Site Standard English	mind of enlightenment
Richard Barron's English Term	awakened mind
Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term	mind of enlightenment
Gyurme Dorje's English Term	enlightened mind, enlightened attitude
Alternate Spellings	རྫོགས་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།
Term Information
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution.
Has the Sense of	As this is the desire to achieve and help achieve the state of enlightenment for all sentient beings, it is called the thought or mind of awakening or enlightenment.
Related Topic Pages	Https://www.bhutan.virginia.edu/subjects/8260/text-node/51131/nojs
Term Type	Noun
Definitions
Rangjung Yeshe Dictionary	a mind directed towards pure and total presence, a mind set on enlightenment, bodhichitta, awakened heart, enlightened mind, attitude, the [primordial] state of pure and total presence; enlightened mind. བྱང་ meaning – pure of obscurations and chub meaning perfect in enlightened attributes.